Courtesy of Good for 20Food enthusiasts send photos of their farmers' market purchases to I'm Good for 20 to show how much food can be bought for $20, organizer Becca Karger said.

MORRISTOWN — Two organic food enthusiasts have thrown down the gauntlet to consumers to spend at least $20 per week at local farm stands instead of the supermarket.

With the goal of shifting at least $20 per week in consumer spending from supermarkets to local farmers' markets, I'm Good for 20 started when Becca Karger and her finance, Shaun Ananko, challenged themselves to spend at least that much on fresh organic fruits and vegetables at local farmers' markets and stands.

"People don't think they're going to get a good amount of food at the farmers market
versus what they could get at the supermarket," Karger said.

Karger, who works in advertising, said she and Ananko — the farm manager at The Urban Farm at Lafayette — began the project over concerns they did not always know the origin of the food on their table.

With I'm Good for 20, Karger said, she has encouraged locavores to send in pictures of $20 worth of market-day bounties to show how far their dollars go. In "a completely non-scientific analysis," Karger said, she has estimated that on average a bounty of local organic
produce costs only $2 more than food from a supermarket.

The other advantage to
buying locally, she said, is that you know exactly where your food is
coming from. Supermarkets often receive produce from other states as well as Mexico and South America.

Karger said buying locally also allows consumers to learn more about their food and to get to know the people who grow their food.

Market day has become "an event now," Karger said, as both she and Ananko find it's a place where they "can get together with people who care about these issues."

"Farmers are busy and they don't have time to advertise for themselves," she said. "Passion is really what drives (this project). That's the pie in the sky thing, to help farmer's advertise and to get people in the habit of purchasing local organic foods."

With fall in the air, Karger said upcoming challenges on the website would focus on the current harvest and later show what vegetables can be found during the winter months.